NASA Brings Space Internet Tech to the ISS

NASA says it has begun to implement a new type of communications protocol, called the Delay/Disruption Tolerant Network (DTN), on the International Space Station. The DTN, which Popular Mechanics covered in a feature in March, has finally seen its first upgrade to an operational ISS module, the Telescience Resource Kit. This new network is expected to increase data speeds throughout the solar system once it's fully implemented.

Take a moment and think about all the steps necessary for this article to get to you so you can read it. Your device needed to send the signal to request the page data from the Popular Mechanics server, which sent back the data required for your web browser to display this page. Both of these steps are handled by a series of protocols, called TCP/IP, or Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol. TCP/IP is the backbone of all internet communications, and what enable you to communicate with all of the other computers and servers that make up the internet.

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You can think of TCP/IP as like a postal system. TCP breaks down your data into small packets, like a series of letters that are sent to a certain destination. TCP makes sure your data is all transmitted together and nothing gets lost. IP is like an address label. It tells the system where your data is going, and who its from. Together, TCP/IP keeps millions of computers connected, and billions of transmissions flowing smoothly.

The internet works much the same in space. TCP/IP is still used to communicate with Earth's satellites, the ISS, rovers on Mars, and probes around the other planets. However, while data on Earth is sent through nearly lossless fiber optic cables, data in space often has to travel across millions of miles and through multiple relay satellites, and this can introduce problems. What if an asteroid takes out a communications satellite, or a solar flare interrupts a transmission? Interruptions and outages are common when communicating in space, and the current TCP/IP system is ill-equipped to handle that. TCP/IP can only transmit data if the connection all the way from the sender to the receiver is established, which can be rare when relaying data through multiple satellites and planets.

So, about 15 years ago, NASA scientists developed a new type of protocol, called Bundle Protocol, designed to handle space internet. This Bundle Protocol, or BP, is what the new Disruption Tolerant Network is using to link everything together. BP uses a method called "store and forward," which allows data to be transmitted partway to the destination, in contrast to TCP/IP. In addition, BP allows data to be sent as separate bundles that don't have to be kept together like with TCP/IP, so senders can transmit whatever they can and have it all assembled at the receiving end, instead of having to send the data all at once.

The DTN is slowly being implemented in many of NASA's rovers and satellites. NASA is also working with a variety of international agencies such as the Internet Research Task Force and the Internet Engineering Task Force to encourage wide adoption of the DTN.